It Comes To This
by Jarris Shepard
Summary: The End of my little brain bubble series. Connal and Ellie don't have a large part in this, but they make an appearance.


It Comes To This

T

The ending of my little thought bubble series Connal started. A summary might give it away.

I don't own Doctor Who and I don't profit by anything I write borrowing it's characters. Moffat and the BBC are solely the owners of the copyright, and I really don't intend to infringe upon their rights.

-Doctor Who-

The room was peaceful, the only light from a bedside lamp on the lowest setting. It was cozy and calming. The Doctor was propped up on his side of their bed, watching his Clara sleep. Over the years they'd found a sort of routine to her sleep patterns. When Connal and Ellie had been very small, they'd slept as much as Clara's human body needed, but as they got older sleep was farther and farther between their waking moments. They required more than their father, their human halves still needing a bit of rest every other day or so, but not the six or eight hours that Clara's fully human body required daily.

The Doctor had started spending time with Clara as she fell asleep, then he'd putter around on his own or with the kids, only to return to her side and be there when she woke. He'd come to love watching her sleep over the years. Now, more and more of his life was consumed by this task. They'd stopped adventuring a few years ago, when it became apparent that Clara's body could no longer handle all the running and danger. As she'd slowed, his need to wander had become tempered by his need to be at her side.

The TARDIS had accommodated Clara's need to slow down, but still be close to her children by creating a never before known room. It was a meadow, filled with the sounds of happy little birds and covered in fragrant flowers, and on some days when Clara was feeling the need for it, a nice shower would come through. In the center of the meadow was a small cottage, where Clara and The Doctor now resided. The affection between his TARDIS and his impossible girl was unmistakable now.

He looked up to the ceiling for a moment thinking of the TARDIS, and feeling the light touch of her presence in his mind. "She's not got much time left, old girl." He said it so softly that Clara, even lying in his arms, couldn't have heard him. He knew it as he had with her Gran all those years ago. She'd going on a new adventure without him very soon. He couldn't bear the thought of not being near her, not hearing her laughter or feeling the touch of her hand to his face. He'd spoken to their son and daughter, grown now and adventuring on their own for the most part. They'd agreed with his request to let him present his thoughts to their mother alone.

He was just waiting for her to awake, he knew for the last time, unless there was intervention of some sort. He had grown to love these moments waiting, anticipating the moment when her eyes opened and lit upon seeing him there watching. In that moment all the years lining her face and graying her hair, just disappeared. She was his Clara no matter what, but in that moment she returned to the Clara he'd first fallen in love with all those years ago when he had a different face. They'd had nearly seven decades together, and he knew he didn't want to carry on without her. He understood now, what had driven Amy to take the chance with the Angel and follow Rory into the past. Together or not at all, it was the foundation of his thoughts these last days as Clara's eyes had grown dimmer with each waking, bringing her closer to that next adventure that no one knew except those who had taken it. It must be some adventure, because none of those who'd taken it had ever returned.

Clara's breathing changed and he pulled himself from his musings. It was no work to bring a smile to his face when her eyes opened and focused on him. "Hello, My Clara. Sleep well?" He stroked a few strands of her gray hair from her face.

"I did. Are the kids off on an adventure, you think?" She traced his brows as she'd done the whole of their lives together. "I'd like to see them."

"I know you would, Clara, but I need to have a chat with you first." He didn't know exactly how to start it.

"I know that look," Clara's head was tilted as she studied his face. "You have that look when you want to talk about something that you know I won't like."

"I do want to talk, and you won't like it." He offered her, and couldn't resist placing a kiss to her forehead.

"Well then, must be important considering the timing."

"This is the only time that I could talk to you about this." He took a deep breath, and pulled her tight as he dared. "I've been doing quite a lot of thinking over this, Clara. I learned a lot of things over the 2600 years of life. I'd never met someone that I couldn't continue on without though. I never understood why Amy would rip herself from her life to follow Rory."

"It's a human emotion, love is. At least that kind that makes you refuse to go on without that one person who brings that spark to life in you." She ran weakened brittle fingers through his gray curls. "It's no secret that you are my spark, love."

"I've known that from the first." He took her hand as she lowered it from his hair, and placed a tender kiss in it's palm. "I felt it myself, you know."

"What are you saying, love?" Clara was worried now.

"I'm saying that of all the companions I've had over the years, all the people I loved, my wives even, I've finally met the one person that I can not bear to continue on without." He kissed her palm again.

"No, you promised you'd stay and watch over the kids, and meet our grandchildren when those two get around to finding their own loves."

"That could be quite a long time. They don't have lives as long as my own, but quite a length of time before regeneration is inevitable. Clara, I've come to the decision that they are quite capable with or without us. I've come up with two possibilities as a solution to this situation. What it boils down to is something that Amy once said to Rory. Together or not at all."

"What do you mean?" She was becoming worried about him indeed.

"I mean that you and I go where you are going either together or not at all."

"But that would mean your-NO! Doctor, I won't be the reason you leave this universe."

"This universe doesn't need me any longer. Connal and Ellie have taken over the family business." He was smiling softly. "You're forgetting the second part of that statement. The not at all, part."

"I don't see how that part would be at all possible. It's just my time, love."

"Well, I could do a thing, it's not really allowed, but there aren't any other time lords to call me on it. I think the only reason it was forbidden is that it reminded them that they were not really immortal after all. Most of them would not thank me for that, the rest would only feel the utmost pity."

"What is this thing?"

"I can share regeneration energy with you. I could use it to balance out our lifespans. Give us more time, but at the end of it, I would no longer have the ability to regenerate. We'd be equal, as far as how long we are to live." HE knew that she wasn't liking that idea. "Please, Clara. We go together or not at all, I won't be left behind by you, My Impossible Girl. Either I share the energy and we continue on for a few hundred years together, or we go together now."

"I can't make that choice for you, and you shouldn't make it for me." Clara stated. "I want you to live, Doctor, I want you to live."

"Then the choice is already made." He gave a shake and his hand started to glow.

"No, Doctor, don't." She sounded panicked.

"Too late, My Clara, I'm already doing it." He watched her absorb the energy from him. Slowly, so slowly, she started to change. Her hair darkened and the lines of age smoothed back into the appearance of youth. When the energy glow subsided, he waited for Clara's eyes to open. "Hello, My Impossible Girl." He was smiling. She didn't look like she had when they'd first met, she looked a bit older.

"You are such an impossible man, Doctor." He smiled down at her and leaned closer until his lips brushed against her ear. He whispered something in Gallifreyan, which Clara understood after he'd taught it to her and their children. Ironically, she already knew the name, she'd read it a long time ago in the TARDIS library. "Did you just-"

Her Doctor smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. "I decided that if we're to live out the rest of our lives together, I wanted to do that as your husband. It's up to you if you want to do this as my wife."

"Thought you'd never ask." She stated before pulling him down into a long kiss.

"So what do you say, all of time and space for a while longer, with them?" He indicated the doorway to their bedroom, and she looked to see her son and daughter watching with grins matching their father's. She had always loved that she got to see his smile no matter which face she was looking into.

She shared another kiss with him and then found her feet without assistance for the first time in a long while. She crossed and held her children, both in their fifties but looking around thirty, as she now looked around fifty though she was in her nineties. She felt her husband's arms encircle them all. "Absolutely, Impossible Man."


End file.
